Nine projects a year, and the price is on the page
Tajem is a five-person studio doing identity, print and packaging. We take nine projects a year because that is how many five people can do properly, and every one of them is priced before it starts.
What we make
See everything
Identity, from nothingNaming aside, everything an identity needs: two routes, the recommended one built out, and a set...USD 14000.00
Identity, rebuiltYou have something that half works. We keep what is doing its job and fix the...USD 9500.00
Packaging, one rangeStructure, artwork and print-ready files for up to six SKUs, with the printer involved from week...USD 11000.00
Print, one thing done properlyA report, a menu, a book, a set of posters. One object, designed and on press,...USD 4800.00
Art direction, by the monthFor a team that can make the work but keeps drifting. Two days a month, and...USD 3600.00
A second opinionHalf a day on work you already have, written up. Sometimes the answer is that it...USD 900.00
Two routes, not fourteen, and we will argue for one of them
A studio that shows you fourteen options has not made a decision and is asking you to make it instead.
Every identity project reaches the same point: two routes, presented properly, with the reasoning written down and one of them recommended. You are welcome to take the other one, and about a third of clients do, but you will never be handed a wall of logos and asked which you like.
Recent work
- 9
- 5
- 2
- 2012
The five of us
Tanya Ellington
Founded the studio in 2012. Leads identity work and has never once presented fourteen options.
Junior Marsh
Print and packaging. Does the press checks, which is why they happen at all.
Aisha Grant
Typography and the long, unglamorous build-out after the route is chosen.
Damian Pike
Takes every identity into the things that move. Also the reason this website loads quickly.
Nyala Reid
Schedules the nine projects and tells the rest of us when we have quietly taken a tenth.
Notes
Everything
Two routes, not fourteenA wall of logos means the studio has not made a decision and is asking you to make it instead.
The year we took fourteen projectsWe did four of them badly. Here is what that cost, in money and otherwise.
Why our prices are on the websiteA discovery call whose only purpose is working out what you can afford is a negotiation, not a process.
What a brand guideline is actually forNot for you. For the person who has to use it when nobody from the studio is around.
Get the printer in the room in week twoFour packaging projects, and the one that went wrong is the one where we did not.
What clients say
★★★★★
Printer on a call in week two. Saved us about four thousand dollars.
★★★★★
They talked us out of a full rebrand and fixed what was broken for a third of the money.
★★★★★
Somebody stood at the press check at six in the morning.
★★★★★
Nine projects a year means you may have to wait. We waited.
★★★★★
Two routes, reasoning written down, one recommended. No wall of logos.
★★★★★
Price was fixed before we started and did not move.
★★★★★
They do not do naming and said so in the first email.
★★★★★
We own the working files outright. No licence, nothing to renew.
Before you write
The questions that come up in every first call.
Are those prices real?
Yes, and they are fixed before the work starts. Scope changes are quoted separately and in writing. Nobody here has had an argument about an invoice since 2019.
Why only nine projects a year?
Because five people can do nine properly. We took fourteen in 2017 and did four of them badly, which cost us more in remade work than the four projects were worth.
Will I see lots of options?
You will see two routes, with the reasoning written down and one of them recommended. About a third of clients take the other one, which is fine; being handed a wall of logos is not.
Do you do naming?
No. We have tried and we are not good at it. We will happily recommend two people who are.
Who owns the work?
You do, outright, on final payment, including working files. There is no licence, no annual fee and nothing to renew.
Do you work outside Jamaica?
Yes, about a third of the work is overseas and it makes no difference to the price. We will still get on a plane for a press check if the job needs it.
Two of this year’s nine are still open
A paragraph about what you are making and roughly what you can spend is enough to start. We answer within three days, including no.
Start something
What you are making and roughly what you can spend. Three days to an answer.
9 Waterloo RoadKingston, Saint Andrew